Jan 13, 2014

There’s a New Contender In The Arena

Gay characters in gaming have really leapt to the forefront
of the gaming industry. Controversial gay romances in games like Mass Effect 3,
Fable, or Dragon Age give players the option to pursue a gay romance between the
main character and supporting characters. Visibility of the “gay factor” in
storylines bespeak of a new age of the gaming character. Like real life, the LGBT community have begun to make
strides and moves.

Harkness From Fable

The Gay Kaiden Alenko Storyline

There is also a new dawn of the transgender character.
Bridget from the Guilty Gear series is perceived to be a young girl in nun type
garb but is actually a young boy.

Boy Or Girl, Bridget is vicious with thoseYo-Yos.

Bridget-Guilty Gear

There has also been recent buzz about The Capcom character
Poison (Final Fight, SFxT, Super Street Fighter IV) being a trans-woman. Poison
is a fan favorite and has a very unique moveset which definitely makes her a
very competitive character when played accurately. When it was announced that she would be a
playable character in the next Super Street Fighter update, fans were excited.
The revelation

that she is a trans-woman has not made a dent in the
character’s popularity.

Gaming continues to evolve just like society and where the
gay or trans character was included as a point of ridicule or comedy, that same
character is now the protagonist or powerful antagonist. Times have changed and we can only hope that
the future of gaming looks brighter for the representation of LGBT characters
and storylines.

Street Fighter Fan Favorite Poison.

Poison

The question becomes do we want our LGBT characters to
assimilate into a game seamlessly or do we need to have the LGBT tag stamped on
them and noted? The idea that “We are here. We are queer” denotes a type of
militant stance that forces our character representation to stand out. But on
the other had we demand to be treated as
normally as one would treat our heterosexual kin. I prefer that my LGBT
characters happen as normally and as randomly as we encounter each other in
real life. Games like Mass Effect 3 do
an amazing job of integrating the idea of a gay romance into the world shaking
storyline, by introducing gay characters who are more than their sexuality and
who have deep and moving stories, BEFORE they encounter the main character. I
am a fan of a well rounded character who happens to be Gay, Lesbian, Trans, or
Bi.

Gaming is making huge strides in representation and we can
only hope it continues. Rome wasn’t built in a day .